The Sincerest Form of Flattery: The Lost Coin (Luke 15:8-10) Artwork

Stories for the Waiting Room

"Stories for the Waiting Room" examines the existential value of Jesus' parables for living in today's complex society. The podcast's host, Dr. Mark A. Proctor, holds a Ph.D. in Religion from Baylor University with an emphasis in New Testament Studies. Dr. Proctor has published a handful of scholarly articles on the parables, and their content has provided meaningful subject matter for his graduate and undergraduate courses. "Stories for the Waiting Room" examines the parables in light of their first-century cultural milieu with an eye toward applying their timeless content and challenges to our own contemporary context.

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Stories for the Waiting Room

The Sincerest Form of Flattery: The Lost Coin (Luke 15:8-10)

June 07, 2021 • Dr. Mark A. Proctor • Season 1 • Episode 8

0:00 | 1:12:48

In the eighth episode of "Stories for the Waiting Room" Mark and Lee investigate Luke's parable of the Lost Coin. This unique story follows closely on the heels of the Lost Sheep (see episode seven), and so forms one of Luke's many gendered pairs. It concerns a woman's delight in finding a coin she misplaced in her home, and aims to illustrate the "joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents." Whereas the Jesus Seminar regarded the story's claim to authenticity as substantial, good reasons also exist for thinking the Lost Coin just might be the literary product of what Oscar Wilde once referred to as flattery's sincerest form.